Aziz Abu Sarah
In a place where struggles over land have fueled
hatred and distrust for centuries, Aziz Abu Sarah is finding common
ground. His effort to build relationships, not walls, amid the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is especially amazing in light of his own
past.
Abu Sarah’s childhood as a Palestinian boy
in Jerusalem was shattered when his brother was imprisoned, tortured,
and killed. “I was so bitter and angry all I could think about was
revenge,” he remembers. His teen years were spent in the resistance
movement—writing inflammatory articles, organizing demonstrations,
spreading hate, and opposing the peace process. Although Hebrew was
mandatory in his school, he considered it the language of the “enemy”
and refused to learn a single word. But after graduating high school, he
realized Hebrew would be essential to entering a university or landing a
good job in Jerusalem.
Necessity brought him
into a Hebrew class for Jewish newcomers to Israel. “I was the only
Palestinian in the class,” he recalls. “These were the first Jewish
people I had ever met besides soldiers with guns at checkpoints.
Suddenly I was being welcomed, developing friendships, and hearing
stories from people I had called enemies all my life. When I saw they
were ordinary human beings just like me I realized I had a choice. I
could remain a victim, controlled by the person who killed my brother,
or I could take a different, harder path and overcome my rage. It’s a
decision I have to make again every day, do I want to keep
transforming—or not?”
Based on his own
transformative experience, Abu Sarah dedicates his life to using
personal stories and cross-cultural learning to forge unprecedented
understanding and positive social change at a people-to-people level.
“Meeting Jews for the first time challenged everything I believed; now I
use that as a framework to help people question what they think and see
how complex the ‘other’ actually is.”
His
tactics are as diverse as the religious, political, and social groups he
works to bring together. Abu Sarah blogs, creates podcasts, pens
editorials for Palestinian and Israeli newspapers, teams up with an
Israeli as a radio show co-host, lectures at international organizations
and universities worldwide, works with a joint group of
Israeli-Palestinian parents who have lost children to the conflict, and
is authoring a book with a Jewish friend.
A
walking embodiment of the reconciliation he strives to achieve, Abu
Sarah is a Muslim who works closely with rabbis and Christian groups and
speaks Arabic, Hebrew, and English. “My goal isn’t to come in to a
group of students or soldiers and say here’s my political view, you
should think like me. I simply expose them to thoughts they’ve never
heard before. Pain is very powerful, very destructive. But it can also
be constructive. If you open up and listen to the other side’s suffering
you don’t have to agree with their actions, but you can understand
where they’re coming from.”
In the U.S. he is
co-executive director of George Mason University’s Center for World
Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (the oldest conflict
resolution school in the world). There he builds alliances between
Jewish and Arab Americans and has launched a unique study-abroad program
bringing students to the Middle East and beyond. “Speakers and
excursions delve into the true complexity of the situation here. We
include every point of view—Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim,
secular, left-wing, right-wing, historical, cultural, environmental.
This multi-narrative presentation of ideas is essential to seeing how
you can work with very different mindsets toward conflict resolution.”
Abu
Sarah uses the same concept to create a new model of tourism. His
rapidly growing Mejdi tour company has brought thousands of people to
the region on trips that highlight diversity. “If you travel here with
only one guide,” Abu Sarah notes, “you are limited to one point of view.
That’s why we always try to have at least two guides, one Israeli and
one Palestinian, plus many local guides all along the way. Whether you
explore history, archaeology, or the environment you need all points of
view or you’ll go home with a distorted, one-dimensional picture.” The
multicultural spirit of the tours is reflected in the people who
participate—Jewish congregations, seminary groups, Imams, rabbis,
ministers, and students from around the world.
Abu
Sarah’s passion for peace bears practical fruit: students inspired to
cancel tickets home to stay and intern with peace organizations,
synagogue groups compelled to share their experiences with churches and
mosques, travelers motivated to help build the struggling economy by
connecting with local Israeli-Palestinian businesses, the brother of a
suicide bomber reaching out to the father of a victim to apologize and
say he didn’t find the act heroic, an Israeli teenager determined to
join the army and kill Palestinians and now rethinking his decision.
“When
I see lives like this being saved from the cycle of violence and
revenge it makes it all worth it. Maybe I can’t change things
politically, but I can change people. And my small changes can make a
difference in when this conflict will end. The more I do today, the
faster peace will come.”
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